


Echoes of Death Like the Beating of Wings

by Angel Ascending (angel_in_ink)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, I had to feel things so everyone else has to, Sadness, Spoilers for Episode 102, Still we hope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 14:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11315649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_in_ink/pseuds/Angel%20Ascending
Summary: They all felt it, each in their own way, the absence of him.





	Echoes of Death Like the Beating of Wings

Tary stayed behind in Whitestone when the others left. He was no longer filled with the need to prove himself to them. They’d be fine, surely, with their little gnome friend along, and Tary had work to do, had to fix Doty and head home. He had a lot of work ahead of him, and his head was filled with plans and his hands filled with gears when he felt the necklace pulse against his chest, beating like a second heart.

The gears clattered to the floor of the workroom as one of Tary’s hands wrapped itself around the dragon’s tooth necklace, but the pulsing had already stopped. One of his friends had been unconscious for a brief moment and then—what? Had they been healed? Had they died? Had it been Percy? Vex? Keyleth?

“They’re fine,” Tary said to himself in a shaking voice, bending over and picking up the fallen gears, placing them on the workbench next to Doty’s metal frame. “Pike must have healed them or someone made them swallow a healing potion. They’re fine.”

The necklace pulsed again as if to give lie to his words. This time the beat went on for longer before ceasing. Tary felt tears welling in his eyes, and that was foolish, wasn’t it? He didn’t know what was happening, because he wasn’t there. They could all be fine, but he wasn’t there to know. He should have been there. He could have helped them. He—

He wasn’t sure if he actually felt the necklace pulse for a single heart beat or if he had imagined it. His tears spilled over anyway.

“Doty, hold me,” Tary sobbed. Doty stayed silent and still on the work table, not finished enough to respond or perform the simple task of comfort. Tary wrapped his own arms around himself instead as he leaned against the wall and cried.

********

Shaun Gilmore was in the middle of a sale when the sense of foreboding hit him so hard that it felt like a physical thing. Only years of practice kept the smile on his face, kept the catch out of his voice as his heart pounded in his chest. He closed the sale quickly with a smile and a flourish before catching his assistant’s eye.

“Sherri? I’ll be in the back.” His voice didn’t waver, his tone casual and friendly. “I wish not to be disturbed.”

Sherri nodded, and there was something in her eyes that made Gilmore think that maybe she suspected something was wrong. The girl knew him entirely too well.

Gilmore retreated into the back, walking calmly, easily, and it was only when he entered his own private sanctuary away from prying eyes that he relaxed his iron control over himself. His hands shook slightly as he made himself tea, added certain things that would calm his anxious heart. The act of making tea was usually soothing in itself, but not today, it seemed. He forced his hands to still as he wrapped them around the cup. It’d be a shame if he dropped it, after all.

“My boy,” Gilmore said. There was only one person he referred to as such, an old habit that was hard to break. “My darling raven boy, I hope you haven’t gone and gotten yourself into some trouble that your friends cannot get you out of.”

********

It should have been raining.

It should have been raining, but instead everything was green and bright in the Feywild, and there was sun shining off the pond. There were colors everywhere, but all Keyleth could see was the black of Vax’s empty armor in Scanlan’s arms. She remembered, suddenly, the way Vax had carried Scanlan’s body after the gnome had died, and seeing Scanlan carry Vax’s armor in a similar fashion made her eyes sting.

A gentle breeze blew, and a few motes of gray dust blew off of Vax’s armor. Keyleth had to resist the urge to run after them, catch them in her cupped hands like she had done with fireflies on summer nights when she had been young. A few bits of dust missing wouldn’t make a difference. She didn’t know if even _having_ the dust of Vax’s body would help anything.

“Where’s Vax?” Keyleth heard Vex say, and the way she said it, high and frantic, made Keyleth wonder if Vex had been asking the question for awhile. No one was answering her.

Keyleth had seen Vax die twice that day, through some strange twist of magic or fate. Seeing Vex’s face crumple when she looked at the empty armor in Scanlan’s arms was worse. She strode over to Vex and cupped her face in her hands, felt tears running over her fingers. Keyleth didn’t have time to shed any tears of her own. She had to get everyone home first, and then—

“We’re going to get him back, Vex,” Keyleth said softly. “I promise.”

*******

Vex was in the temple of the Raven Queen, in Whitestone. She didn’t actually remember how or when they had gotten back. She thought it might have been hours ago, but time hadn’t been a concern of hers, not really. She looked at Vax’s armor and the small leather pouch that contained all that remained of her brother. If she thought about it too hard she would start crying again, or be sick, she wasn’t sure which.

Vax had died before. It had been bad then, like losing something that had always been a part of her, like losing a limb. This time it was worse. This time there wasn’t even a body, just—

Vex was shaking. She felt cold inside, somewhere deep in that place that felt so empty now, like part of her had been scooped out and filled with ice.

“Bring him back,” she heard herself say in a voice rough from crying. “Please. I’ll— I’ll do whatever you ask. I’ll wear the armor, become your champion, give up my name. Anything. Just please—“

Vex waited for a sign. A whisper in the dark, the caw of a raven, a shower of feathers. Instead there was only Percy in the doorway of the temple. He smelled like gunpowder and smoke, and his calloused hands were gentle when he touched her.

“You should come to bed,” Percy said quietly.

Vex didn’t want to go to sleep, dreaded that moment just before waking fully where she would forget Vax was dead, then dreading the moment after that, when she would remember that it hadn’t all been a horrible nightmare. Still, she was exhausted, and standing vigil over what remained of her brother would do no one any good.

“I’m going to get him back,” Vex said. “I’ll march right up to the Raven Queen and take his soul right out of her hands if I have to.”

“I know,” Percy said, and his mouth twisted into a ghost of a smile. “And I’ll be right there next to you. What else could I do but follow?”

Vex squeezed Percy’s hand and let herself be lead away.

*********

Elsewhere, in the darkness, there was the sound of beating wings. A bird trying to find his way home.


End file.
